Essay: Organizational Structure & Competitive Advantages - Activex Limited In Australia

The literature review would be on an organisation (company) that is using accounting software packages in Australia. The research would cover:

1.  The current organizational structure

2.  What operational problems (e.g., inefficiency, errors) do you think the organisation could experience because of this structure?

3.  What is the most likely system acquisition method— commercial software, custom software, or ERP?

4.  Describes and prepare a system flowchart of the sales procedures for the chosen organisation (company)

5.  Identify any control problems in the system and what sorts of fraud are possible in this system?

1.  Development and adoption of the accounting software packages,

2.  The current market size,

3.  Identify the leaders in the market and what gives them the competitive advantage,

4.  Identify the current gaps or challenges encountered by users or customers of accounting software/packages and make relevant suggestions or recommendations.

Organizational Structure of Activex Limited

Strategic information system becomes a considerable important to the professionals of information system in business as well as academic communities. Hence, it is required to analyze present market situation of an organization and take proper measures in order to gain competitive advantages in the market. Preset study deals with current market size of Activex Limited and operational problems like inefficiency and errors faced by the company. In addition, most likely system acquisition method of the company such as commercial software, custom software or ERO is discussed in the study. The paper also focuses on development as well as adoption of software packages and the current market size of the organization. The current market size and factors for competitive advantages are also discussed in the study.

Galliers and Leidner (2014) stated that current organizational structure of Activex Limited reflects the composition as well as hierarchy of the division of the organization. It determines distribution of the authorities along with responsibilities within the particular organization. In addition, it is required to define the group of people through making the key decisions at the organization. Visualization of the structure of Activex Limited includes various departments. The current organizational structure of Activex Limited can be visualized by the given flowchart.

Figure 1: Organizatonal structre

(Source: Created by Author)

The company head is BOD Under BOD, CEO works and Delivery program directors, operations and VP sales/ finance works under the CEO.  The work role of the CEO is to analyze the revenue report and find any gaps present in the company. On the other hand, VP Software development is responsible for entire process of software development operations in the organization. VP operations are also responsible for the entire operations through analyzing the output generated by the team (Boonstra, 2013). Delivery program directors analyze the works generated from software project managers. Software engineers are involved with the process of software development. Sales and marketing manager personnel is responsible for selling related to the organization.  IT mangers are involved with the services achieved by the staffs. HR & Admin are involved with the work done by the staffs. In addition, CFO analyzes the work done by account staffs in the particular organization.

Structure of an organizational introduces several issues among the staffs of the organization. It enables inefficiency and errors in the organization. Departmental conflict is one of the major issues faced by the organization. The functions of employee functions are involved with the process of hiring as well as training personnel. The employee reports to the HR manager and departments of supports. In addition, it is required to increase the process of sales and head of the department (Alenezi, Tarhini & Masa'deh, 2015). The approaches make best use for trained staffs. Inconsistency may result for anti-employee policy as well as process occurred in the organization. On the other hand, it is required to enforce the things that can make dissension as well as confusion.

Organizational Controls

 The staffs are responsible for the operational procedure. Therefore, any issues in the structure generate errors in the organization. In addition, poor communication among the staffs and higher authority of the organization generate several organizational problems in Activex Limited. Informal meetings for planning the trends become less effective in the company aling with unclear goals set by the management of the organization.

It is important to adopt new system in order to develop systems that can minimize errors and increase efficiency in the organization. It is important to ensure that acquisition method of the particular software packages or ERP system is properly achieved and becomes error free. Introduction of ERP system is generally aided through the use of implementation methodologies.  The methodologies of implementation includes information pertaining and the process of carrying out the system with the help of experts. In addition, it is required to make the system error free.

The process of implementing ERP system includes several stages such as analysis of business, planning, designing, presentation of the system and pilot project.  Business analysis requires representing 20 % of the process of implementation period as well as finding opportunities of the project (Koech, Gichunge & Thuo, 2016). The supplier and project manager gives planning of the particular project. In addition, designing of the case include project manager who has a major role in tracking as well as planned for delivery. Designing phase requires configuring and developing the system for project management. The configured ERP system is checked for ensuring coverage of the system and flows.

Figure 2: Flow cahrt of system

 (Source: Created by Author)

Organizational controls include the rules of developing and guidelines, processes as well as limits along with protocols in order to direct the work in the procedures followed by the staffs as well as departments in the organization (Bharati & Chaudhury, 2015). In addition, it is required to develop system methodologies that can reduce the control issues in the organization. Financial stability is one of the common issues in business control process that regulates the financial process. It assists enhancement in the communications and allows the managers in order to determine that efforts are encountering with the annual targets. The controls of the organization include each department to submit as well as monitor the process.

In addition, there are several issues faced by the organizations such as brand management. In order to maximize the sales of target customer base, it is required to develop and send consistent message regarding the products as well as service. It includes the effective communication, which is lacked in the organization.

ERP Implementation

 The concept of adopting accounting software is laid under the process of accounting software system. It is defined as the computer software, which is used for recording as well as processing of the accounting transactions with the help of useful module. The accounts of receivable module make balance in the trail. In addition, it is required to make general purpose of financial report of the organization. The accounting software needs to be created in-house through the business and needed third party software developer. It is important to analyze cost as well as complexity of the software packages. In addition, there are several issues for development of the plans that are restricted to the recording as well as processing of financial data. However, it provides several functional modules that are used to manage the process of taking decisions and make remarkable changes to the advancement of technology.

Sizing of the market is essential for business as well as marketing planning. Budgeting for startups and seeking of third party application system requires third party financing like venture capital. It is required to invest the philosophies that are different for the investors. Seeking of external financing of market potential has a range of different strategies. It can be used for product development and partnering as well as procedures that can be helpful to determine the market size of the organization (Durst et al. 2015). Development of the products needs to start up and evaluate the size as well as nature of market.  

Starting of the specific point needs understanding of the market size for the customers as well as potential value of the product is depending upon the process of estimating total market size. In each of the steps, the steps of analyzing current market size are analyzed. Definition of the target customers provides outline to the key steps of the target customer.

 Leading domestic organizations like Activex Limited in the emerging markets are required advancement of corporate sustainability through coming with innovative programs as well as initiatives taken by the organization through its business paradigms as well as models. The organizations are driven through strong belief, which can manage the business with giving responsibility. The high level of competence for developing the market size of the organizations, it is required to receive recognition in previous decade (Popovi? et al. 2014). The businesses from the emerging economies enable to dedicate internationalization. Therefore, it is required to find leaders in the market and follow strategies of the development. It is important to take appropriate decision regarding the issues and help the organization to enhance performance in overall market.

Market Size

It is important for an organization to identify the competitive advantages in the organization. In addition, adopting proper measures for gaining those advantages in the market would be helpful to achieve target of the organization (Pearlson et al. 2016). It is crucial for an organization to detect the functional areas for obtaining the advantages. The marketing factors are important for corporate marketing concerns in the enterprise generate products as well as services that are required in the market place (Wong et al. 2014). In addition, the corporate product mix of the organization, service norms of the organization would be helpful for the organization for getting competitive advantages in the market.

Soliman (2014) commented that it is crucial for an organization to identify the current gaps generated by the users in the organization. As the workplace are involving with participating and emerging technologies are required for the organization. Understanding requirements in the business objective is important to be considered. In addition, it is required to find the gaps of the users through understanding the needs of the customers or users. National occupational standard can be utilized in order to detect the gaps and the process of filling (Hill, Jones & Schilling, 2015). Skill management tool can be used in order to analyze the gaps of the organization. In addition, identifying the missing things for which inefficiency and errors like issues are arising are required to identify by the organization.

In order to solve the issues, some measures can be taken. The management of the organization needs to be careful with hierarchical structure of the organization (Otoo, Agapitova & Behrens, 2015). Moreover, training to the employees would be helpful to achieve the target of the company. The staffs need to develop communication within the organization and understand the demands of customers.  Proper planning for using ERP system would be useful to minimize the gaps in Activex Limited.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that an organization needs to achieve effective strategic information system in order to retain good position in the market. In this perspective, it is required to identify the current problems in the organization and implement effective system that would help to gain competitive advantages. Moreover, identifying control problems and current market size allows enabling effective method for system development of the organization.

References

Alenezi, H., Tarhini, A., & Masa'deh, R. (2015). Investigating the strategic relationship between information quality and e-government benefits: A literature review.

Bharati, P., & Chaudhury, A. (2015). Product customization on the web: an empirical study of factors impacting choiceboard user satisfaction.

Boonstra, A. (2013). How do top managers support strategic information system projects and why do they sometimes withhold this support?. International Journal of Project Management, 31(4), 498-512.

Durst, C., Durst, M., Kolonko, T., Neef, A., & Greif, F. (2015). A holistic approach to strategic foresight: A foresight support system for the German Federal Armed Forces. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 97, 91-104.

Galliers, R. D., & Leidner, D. E. (2014). Strategic information management: challenges and strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.

Hill, C. W., Jones, G. R., & Schilling, M. A. (2014). Strategic management: theory: an integrated approach. Cengage Learning.

Koech, D. C., Gichunge, E. M., & Thuo, A. (2016). Factors Influencing Strategic Information Systems Implementation In Government Parastatals: A Case Of Kenya Forest Service, Mau Forest Conservancy. European Scientific Journal, 12(15).

Otoo, S., Agapitova, N., & Behrens, J. (2015). A strategic and results-oriented approach to learning for capacity development.

Pearlson, K. E., Saunders, C. S., & Galletta, D. F. (2016). Managing and Using Information Systems, Binder Ready Version: A Strategic Approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Popovi?, A., Hackney, R., Coelho, P. S., & Jakli?, J. (2014). How information-sharing values influence the use of information systems: An investigation in the business intelligence systems context. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 23(4), 270-283.

Soliman, K. S. (2014). Crafting Global Competitive Economies: 2020 Vision Strategic Planning 8. Smart Implementation.

Wong, H. Y., Sultan, P., Sit, J. K., Li, E., & Hung, J. Y. (2014). Environmental Scanning–An Information System Framework for Strategic Decisions in SMEs: A Case Study Analysis. In Handbook of Research on Strategic Management in Small and Medium Enterprises (pp. 40-54). IGI Global.